AWS Sales Appear to Have Risen Sharply

Overall, Amazon made a profit, but didn't meet analyst expectations.

WEBINAR:

On-Demand

Amazon has released its earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2013, and its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing division appears to have had a fantastic quarter. It's hard to say for certain because Amazon lumps AWS revenue and income into an "Other" category that also includes advertising and co-branded credit card agreements. However, the "Other" category brought in $1.17 billion in Q4, up 52 percent from last year. For the entire year, "Other" sales climbed 58 percent to reach $3.72 billion.

However, the good cloud news didn't satisfy Wall Street, which was disappointed with Amazon's overall results. The company posted a profit, which is highly unusual for the firm, but it was not as high as analysts anticipated.